You are here:

• BQ
•  >  Room501

Publishing House makes two-year promise

A national publishing house, responsible for some of the largest and most successful magazines currently available on the market, has pledged its long-term support to one very lucky local branch of a country-wide charity.

Room 501 Publishing has become one of the first sponsors of Variety the children’s charity’s (formerly Variety Club) latest marketing campaign; Build a Bus, where companies pledge their support over a period of two years in order to literally pay for a specialist Sunshine Coach, piece by piece.

The campaign asks corporate sponsors to pledge their support to purchase all aspects of a Sunshine Coach within a two year period, by running fund raising activities that will generate the much-needed cash to buy the bus.  Once raised this enables a new bus to be given to one of the region’s needy causes of the sponsor’s choice, which is then liveried up with their company logo as a constant reminder of their generosity.  On top of that – local PR company; JAM Marketing will send out regular publicity around the company’s fund raising activities to build the awareness of what the sponsor is trying to achieve.

Bryan Hoare Room 501’s marketing and communications director told us why they had decided to take on the Build a Bus challenge:

“When we were approached with the offer to Build a Bus, we thought it was an unusual request to literally run fund raising activities that would buy pieces of a Sunshine Coach until it is paid for, but we also realised we can do it in small bite size pieces, which is easily achievable.

“We are planning three golf days, two in the North East and one in Yorkshire as well as 11 of the Room 501 staff doing the Coast to Coast cycle ride, so we hope to raise £5K on each of these events and that will literally pay for our Sunshine Coach.”

Chairman of Variety, Tony Thornton told us more: “The amount needed to pay for a Sunshine Coach is £20K and this can be raised by various fund raising activities, which the charity has 100’s of suggestions for.  As corporate sponsors they have two years to raise the funds, this makes it more realistic to reach their target, rather than trying to run large events which are harder to pull off.

“We are so grateful to the directors of Room 501 Publishing for agreeing to become one of the first companies on board with our Build a Bus scheme and are looking forward to working with their team over the next two years.”

Variety, which are most famous for their sky blue specialist minibuses known as ‘Sunshine Coaches’, invests in improving the lives of sick, disabled and disadvantaged children in a multitude of ways. Money raised goes towards provision of specialist equipment like wheelchairs and lifting aids, to financing new developments on dedicated hospital wards and fun activities for the children.  All monies raised in this region go directly to children in the North East.

Jackie Marston, managing director of the local-based JAM Marketing who is running the Build a Bus campaign, explained more:

“The campaign is being trialled locally in the Yorkshire and North East regions, however if it is successful, then it is expected to be spread out to other areas of the country to help the charity buy more of the much needed Sunshine Coaches.

“We hope many more companies will take Room 501’s lead and follow in their footsteps by offering to Build a Bus for us.  As a marketing company, we can get them excellent publicity for the companies that come on board and welcome requests from businesses large and small.  You don’t have to be a big company to become involved in this scheme, as paying for small elements of a bus soon adds up and before you know it, a Sunshine Coach is built.”

 

For companies interested in joining Variety’s Build a Bus scheme, please contact JAM Marketing on or email for further information.

 

To make a donation by text to the charity, just text VCNR12 to 70070 and help a local child.  Alternatively, to learn about the charity’s valuable work locally and nationwide log onto their website www.varietyclubnorth.org.uk or www.varietyclub.org.uk.